Kennedy Center renaming prompts new round of cancellations from artists
By: MEG KINNARD (The Associated Press via MSN)
Who didn't see this coming? Trump does this TEA Party crap to blow up things, cause a controversy, and scapegoat every one. Trump (and the TEA Party) doesn't do things like this to celebrate or honor anything or anyone.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
More artists have canceled scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center following the addition of President Donald Trump’s name to the facility, with jazz supergroup The Cookers pulling out of a planned New Year's Eve concert, and the institution's president saying the cancellations belie the artists' unwillingness to see their music as crossing lines of political disparity.
The fresh round of cancellations after Trump put his name of the building follows an earlier artist backlash in spring. After Trump ousted the Kennedy Center board and named himself the institution's chairman in February, performer Issa Rae and the producers of “Hamilton” cancelled scheduled engagements while musicians Ben Folds and Renee Flaming stepped down from advisory roles.
The Cookers, a jazz supergroup performing together for nearly two decades, announced their withdrawal from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve" on their website, saying the “decision has come together very quickly" and acknowledging frustration from those who may have planned to attend.
The group didn't mention the building's renaming or the Trump administration but did say that, when they return to performing, they wanted to ensure that “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it,” reiterating a commitment “to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”
The group may not have addressed the Kennedy Center situation directly, but one of its members has. On Saturday, saxophone player Billy Harper said in comments posted on the Jazz Stage Facebook page that he “would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing.”
According to the White House, Trump’s handpicked board approved the renaming. Harper said both the board, "as well as the name displayed on the building itself represents a mentality and practices I always stood against. And still do, today more than ever.”
Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after he forced out the previous leadership, posted Monday night on X that “The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership,” intimating the bookings were made under the Biden administration.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Grenell said Tuesday the ”last minute cancellations prove that they were always unwilling to perform for everyone — even those they disagree with politically," adding that the Kennedy Center had been “flooded with inquiries from real artists willing to perform for everyone and who reject political statements in their artistry.”
There was no immediate word from Kennedy Center officials if the entity would pursue legal action against the group, as Grenell said it would after musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve performance. Following that withdrawal, in which Redd cited the Kennedy Center renaming, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages for what he called a “political stunt.”
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him. Scholars have said any changes to the building's name would need congressional approval; the law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
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Dress Trump in a pants suit and he could be Hillary Clinton. Tweedledee and Tweedledum fought a war over a victim card that neither could win without losing.
Although I am no fan of Hillary Clinton, there is no way on this planet that she would ever consider putting her name as top billing on the Kennedy Center (a building honoring the assassinated JFK). Further, if this were an act by the board —an honorific bestowed on her— there's no way she would agree to the renaming.
And again, I am no fan of hers, but compared to Trump, she is a grounded, ethical individual.
Trump is a psychopath. It is difficult to compare him with (most) notable others since he is so far into the extremes of narcissism.
No, and how do you come up with such bullshit?
The law is quite clear to me, only Congress has the power to change the name as the center was named for JFK as a memorial. There has been a legislation submitted to remove Trump's name but with our current divided Congress that will never pass. There was also a lawsuit filed which I believe has the best chance to fix this but it will take time as I'm sure it will be appealed up the line.
Yea, because the Congress and the courts have nothing better to do. DT should have known what the name change would create. He seems to not mind wasting everyone's time.
Maybe Ted Nugent and Kid Rock can step in with a three year residency.